Ch 69: You don’t want to know

Janet spent almost the entire first half of the game talking with Kenny and another boy, Bobby. They were both desperately in love and neither knew what to do about. At least they were receptive to her advice. That was more than she could say about others who asked for her services.

“Wes is gonna kill me,” she muttered as she was flagged down by a group of giggly girls. “Please, God, don’t let them be brainless fools.” 

Unfortunately for Janet, God had more important matters to intervene on and she spent most of the second half of the game listening to the drivel of what could only be accurately described as bimbos.

They were excruciatingly annoying, but Janet remained calm and tried her best to be helpful even as her attention was split between them and whatever was going on between her mother and Wes’ dad. To her dismay, they seemed to be getting along rather well, too well, in fact.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Janet said, turning her attention back to the girls.

“Wes Sebastian is like so totally hot! Do you think he’ll go out with me?” Penny asked, her eyes trained on him as he ran past slide-tackling an opponent.

“Actually, no,” Janet replied as she ignored a little green monster wiggling around in the pit of her stomach. “He told me he only likes brunettes, smart and funny ones.” None of which Penny remotely was, Janet thankfully thought to herself.

Penny pouted and glared at a strand of her hair. “I don’t want to dye it!”

“Well, then how about Troy? He is so cute!” Helen said.

“Uh…Troy’s dating my sister,” Janet said.

“Oh, but like that can’t last much longer,” Jean dismissively said, as she snapped her gum. 

“Yeah, they’ve been together for like three or four months," Penny retorted. "He’s gotta be like sick of her by now.”

Janet counted to ten in her head, pushing down the urge to strangle them as she did so. “I don’t think Rich Butler has a girlfriend. Would any of you like him?” she stiffly said.

“He’s just the goalie. I wanna striker,” Penny whined.

“You want a boyfriend or a position on the team?” Janet snapped.

“There’s no use having a loser boyfriend,” Jean retorted.

“Damon Marlin is cool. I wanna get with him,” Helen said.

“He’s going with Tara Reynolds, sorry,” Janet said, though not at all truly sorry.

“That dog? That must be a joke!” Jean shouted.

“Even if she gets on all fours he won’t want her for more than like two minutes,” Helen said.

“I hope he lasts more than two minutes or it won't be worth it,” Penny said giggling and the others shrieked with laughter.

Janet had to count to thirty that time and it still didn’t help. “I don’t think I can help any of you then, sorry,” Janet said through clenched teeth and she got up and walked away.

“Now if the bleachers would collapse under their skinny butts, the whole world would be better off for it,” Janet muttered to herself.

“A Yenta’s work is never done,” Jasmine said walking up behind her. 

 “Didn’t even get a chance to see Wes score a hat trick.”

“A what?”

“That’s when they score three times. Get with the program, Janet, or you’ll be labeled the worst girlfriend ever,” Jasmine joked.

“Jazzy, don’t tell Wes I missed the whole game,” Janet pleaded.

Jasmine smiled. “I won’t.”

“Listen, those girls I was talking to…they wanted me to hook them up with Troy, but I told them he was yours,” Janet said.

“So?”

“So...they didn’t seem bothered by that little fact. They might try for him anyway. Thought I’d warn you,” Janet said, looking anxious. "They might try for Wes too."

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t. Troy knows better than to hang out with skanks,” she replied giving her sister a self-satisfied smirk.

Janet gaped. “You trust him that much?”

“Not really a matter of trust,” she replied, with a shrug. “He just wouldn’t.”

“How can you be so… cavalier? Especially after Dad…”

“One has nothing to do with the other. Dad was drunk and did a stupid thing,” Jasmine said. “Those skanks are good for one thing…giving a guy a disease and Troy's smart enough to stay clear of them. He knows he loses out on all this if he doesn’t.”

“You obviously have a higher opinion of yourself or Troy’s ability to resist temptation,” Janet said, staring at her sister incredulously.

“And you obviously don’t think well enough of yourself… or Wes,” Jasmine said, laughing. “Wes is a great guy and he’s totally into you. He won’t cheat, especially not with them.” 

“How do you know?”

“I just do. Listen, he totally blows them off every time they try to get him to talk to them. Won’t even say hello. He knows what they’re about and he hates them.”

“What are they about?” Janet asked.

Jasmine gave her a funny look. “Come on, you gotta know.”

“What?”

“Oh, Janet,” Jasmine said, giving her a hug. “Dad is right, you are a little naïve.”

“Dad said that?” she shrieked.

Jasmine laughed. “Yes, and he’s right. You may be a tiny bit smarter, book smart Dad calls it, but you don't know much about the world, like those skanks for instance. They’re in the running for most hook ups before they finish school. It's a stupid contest girls do now,” she explained and at the vacant expression on her sister’s face she added. “They go around getting…notches on their bedposts…understand yet?”

Janet made a face then her eyes flew open. “You don’t mean…”

Jasmine nodded. “I’ve heard Penny’s up to thirty-six and Helen’s into the forties, but Jean’s got them both beat. She’s up to fifty-three…at last count.”

Janet shook her head in disgust. “You’re making up stories!”

Jasmine shrugged. “Believe it or not, doesn’t mean it’s not real. They were using you to improve their numbers. The top slut is Valerie Glass. Rumor has it she’s up to seventy. This month alone she was caught with three different guys giving them…”

Janet held up a hand and grimaced. “No! I don’t wanna hear this!”

Jasmine laughed. “Yes, it’s better that you don’t know too much, but I did want to warn you about them, before you warned me. Catch ya later!”

Janet felt sick to her stomach, as she watched her sister go off to sit with her friends. She would put it out of her mind, is all. It was just too grotesque to think about. She braced herself and went up to sit by her mother.

“Hi, sweetie,” Wendy said throwing an arm around her. “Are you okay? You look upset.”

“Uh…no, I’m okay,” Janet said, trying to smile and failing horribly.

“Wes didn’t really get hurt, Janet,” Donny explained. “He just had the wind knocked out of him for a bit…looks much worse than it really is.” 

“Wes?” Janet shrieked, standing up and searching the field for him. When she spotted him he had just happened to be looking up at her. He smiled and waved and she lifted a hand, her heart pounding frantically. He then lifted his shirt a fraction of an inch and winked.

She giggled and sat back down. Oh, but she was really starting to like that cute guy.

From now on, she promised herself, she would watch the whole game, especially Wes, even if it meant kicking some nasty girls off the bleachers. Of course, she might like doing that!